


The Way Home

by kikibug13



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen, lone power - Freeform, using friends to trap each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 18:21:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5059147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikibug13/pseuds/kikibug13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carl is trekking to a far-away mountain to save Tom, who's been captured by the Lone Power... or are things not quite what they seem?</p>
<p>Trick <i>and</i> treat for Trick or Treat 2015 challenge!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MiraMira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiraMira/gifts).



> No Lifeboats spoilers!
> 
> Thanks a bunch to both my betas!

Carl really hated that his shoes had fallen apart maybe a couple of hours back. Really, he hated a lot about this place - the ground was warm and hard; his feet were bleeding; he was sweating, because it was almost too hot, but there was no sun or any significant brightness to talk of; his slacks were chafing. He'd compacted his coat and jacket and stuffed them in a pocket of said slacks, yes, dealing with time and space on a regular basis did have its advantages, but none of that was getting him closer to his goal. There was only anger, resignation, and, beneath them, gut-curdling fear. 

At the end of the walk, somewhere in the distance - he could see the spine of the mountain - Tom was probably trying just as hard to get out of whatever trap had been set for him. He knew what he was doing, Tom did, and Carl knew he could trust him. 

Except now it was Tom's life in danger. 

It had all started suddenly, and he should have seen it coming. He really should have. It was the local kids, and much as he liked Nita and Dairine and Kit, they did have a penchant for getting things more complicated than they needed to be. Though they did get results, the One Power help him. Even when he felt like it had to be unfair, as that they had so much power, and energy, and chance to move around, even when Tom was stuck at home and Carl barely any better... Even then, he knew they did what they needed to do, just like the rest of them.

This time, they just might get his partner killed, and he was not all right with that.

(There was something bothering him about that train of thought, but he frowned, and kept on going.)

*** 

The mountain was looming above him, and he was trying to figure out _where_ in it he might find his partner, when looking up made something finally click in his head.

The last few hours, he'd been trying to balance (inside his head; outside he just kept _walking_ , as fast as he could, through gritted teeth, occasional tears, and slowly settling hunger and thirst) between life as it usually made sense to him, and the growing resentment towards the younger generation of wizards under his and Tom's charge. 

On the one hand, they _had_ messed up, this time. And Tom had gotten involved to straighten things out on their behalf, and gotten captured. Dairine had been so contrite - she had _better_ be! - telling him he needed to help. He'd set out immediately, following the trail she'd left for him. Possibly not the smartest choice, considering that he'd walked for far more hours than the human body usually had to endure. He had reserves, sure, but... 

He should have packed a few bottles of water and a couple of sandwiches. (It was usually Tom who thought to remind him of such... and Tom wasn't there.) 

But looking up... right now, looking up reminded him that there were no stars in the sky. 

That, alone, was not that strange - they had all ended up in places that looked very, very different. But he had also been walking for many hours, without any change of the lighting - it stayed dim, and gloomy, and oppressive. 

The way a world held in the fist of the Lone Power usually did. 

He probably would have noticed a long time ago if he weren't so worried. Now that he _was_ paying attention though...

The pebbles dropped inside his mind. 

It had started with a small nagging feeling, almost like a voice inside his head when Nita was talking with his koi fish. He'd thought they were unfairly kind to her. And that it was unfair that, while he toyed with time, it was also about anchoring and returning to the past, while Nita was glimpsing, one way or another, the future. 

He'd shrugged it off, of course. Nita was kind of like a niece, closer than a lot of the wizards they were senior to, even. That was not the kind of way he thought about her... But the thoughts returned. Dairine, with her shameless brilliance. Kit, with his stubbornness to make things work, no matter what the cost. 

Uncharitable thoughts towards them all? That was unusual. He loved those children, he loved all the cousins who'd chosen to uphold the Wizard's Oath, but this particular lot... they were special. They were close to his heart. And yet, here he was, condemning them.

Here he had just been, believing that they'd gotten Tom into trouble. 

If nothing else, Dairine Callahan was never, ever contrite. That should have been a pretty big clue. 

But the fear and anger, those should have been even bigger ones. 

He was not where he thought he was. And he certainly was not here for the reasons he'd set out to right. This was a trap. He was trapped in an unknown location, hungry, very thirsty, exhausted, and alone. 

"Fuck."

Alone, in the middle of nowhere, he didn't even _think_ to censor himself. He deserved the harshness, after all, he'd been so stupid, to fall for this. 

A moment was all that he allowed himself.

Carl Romeo, Senior Advisory belonging (mind and soul and _heart_ ) to Sol III, stopped trudging. His feet were still bleeding, the hurt a part of him for so long now that he barely registered it, the blood soaking into the ground beneath him. He straightened, licked his cracked lips, and looked up. 

"Enough!" He yelled. Then he reached out a hand, and did what he should have done a long time ago. When he started walking, really. 

He summoned his Wizard's Manual. 

With a chill that made him doubt the realization he'd just had - that all of this was a trap by the Lone Power, and it was a trap for _him_ , that Tom was probably safe and sound and didn't have the first clue that something like that had warped up Carl's mind - he heard Tom cry out.

***

Tom cried out when, after _two days_ of laying almost completely still, Carl's fingers twitched. His pained face smoothed out and--

\-- his Manual, all currently-four tomes of it, trotted itself through the air, settling by his left hand. 

His breathing didn't really change, though. His eyes didn't open. Tom watched, intently, for another minute, then another, and his back hunched down again, palms mostly covering his face. But not his eyes. They felt gritty and dry, but he would not close them. Would not turn them away from Carl's supine, still form. 

Nita's hand was warm when it settled on his shoulder. She'd dropped by after school, as she had the day before, after finding out Carl'd collapsed on his way out to work. _At least he was safe, here at home, and not driving or something._ Tom shuddered _again_ at the thought of how bad that could have gone. 

However, after a moment, he realized that Nita's hand was gripping a little more tightly than usual. With effort, he turned his eyes away from Carl. Ran one hand back through his hair, and straightened a little, looking up over his shoulder at her. 

"What?" 

"I'm... sorry if this is a personal question..." Her eyes were not meeting his, but the frown she was directing at Carl's face was hesitant, more than worried, and that was progress. "But... Sometimes, Kit and I - we can kind of intrude on each other's thoughts. Which I can't do with Dairine, well, not unless we both put a lot of effort into it. Anyway! I, um. The question is, do you have that kind of - communication?" 

Tom blinked up at her, then frowned. "Kind of. Sometimes. It used to be way stronger, years ago. It went away altogether, then came back, but we'd gotten out of the habit - you know how it is."

"I can imagine." Her eyes finally moved to meet his. "I think in that case you really should try that. If it doesn't work, I'll ask Kit if he can use some of the spells he used for Ponch's leash. Until he moved, just now, I had - nothing. Now I have this feeling he's lost inside his head. See if you can call him back?" 

Another blink, and realization of what she was trying to tell him - as well as how careful she was stepping around getting _too_ personal, considering the way Kit and her had been growing... closer - washed over him. He nodded, squared his shoulders, and laced his fingers with Carl's, settling both of their wrists on top of Carl's manual.

***

_Carl._

The darkness, utter and complete, didn't budge at all. It had wrapped around him the moment when he'd slipped away from the mental traps that the Lone Power had set up for him. He'd not managed to summon his Manual, but that was answer enough as to where he might be. He'd started out, and his bleeding feet had carried him further yet, before he stepped past the last pit, signified by an infuriated, helpless screech - and then, nothing. Silence. Darkness. Nothing to walk on, no way to move. 

Until now. 

Tom's voice, distant and wavering. Except he wasn't hearing the voice at all.

It was inside his mind. 

It was the sweetest sound he could ever imagine. 

"Tom!" He spoke out loud, just because he needed to fill the emptiness around him with _some_ thing. "I'm all right!" 

A pause, and then a sense of immense relief, and dry, exhausted amusement. _That can be argued on. You have a dog lying on your chest, care to point out to her that you'd like your breathing capacity back?_

"How _long_ is it since you've slept?" As the connection grew more steady, he could feel more and more in Tom's thoughts, and they were in shambles. Exhausted.

_Fifty-three hours and seventeen minutes. I called in sick on your behalf at your job._

"Oh, stars and shark teeth..." 

_Just open your eyes. We'll talk about it later._

As usual, easier said than done. However the Lone Power had dragged him here, going out - and he was pretty sure now that he was inside his own head, and could he make a proper, well, pre-Christmas cleaning here? - meant passing through a horrifying mess. There was no more the direct touch of the Lone One, and he was watching for it, but there were years and years of bottled down memories, so many errantries, accumulated where he could forget about them and not let them bother him. Somewhere, in the back of his mind. 

Apparently, nothing, not even the worst things, not even the highest prices, got truly forgotten. He could feel his legs, and walk now. There was light enough, just enough, so he could see the shapes of the recollections of darkness all the better. 

The last, the _last_ , memory he saw before he finally opened his eyes to the light of afternoon fading into evening, was the one thing he did not want to remember, did not want to talk about - and that he could not really let go of. There was one price, for a loan, greater than a lifeprice, and he knew all too well what it was. Tears were rolling down to his hairline, into his ear, but then Tom's thumb brushed the moisture away, and Carl could breathe in, properly.

***

Nita closed the door silently, to the fair head and the dark one with their foreheads pressed together and the two dogs bouncing around them, mostly unnoticed. She slipped out of the house, and walked, trying to stop her hands from shaking, to Kit's house. Kit, and Carmela, and even Dairine looked up when she stepped into the living room.

"He's going to be fine."

"Did he wake up?" 

"Yeah. He woke up, a bit shaken, but not - didn't seem to be anything wrong with him. And my manual says his status is back to normal." 

"That _at risk_ thing - I _really_ didn't like it, all right?" 

"Me neither, Dair."

"... stop looking at me like that. I'll find him." 

Nita couldn't help the small smile directed at the back of her sister, who was storming out of the house in the pumpkin-smelling night. "I know you will, Dair. I'm counting on you." 

Dairine paused, but didn't turn back. Shrugged, kept on going. Carmela passed Nita the box of chocolates, and Nita flopped on the couch by Kit's side. 

"I guess... I can have one or two." 

"Don't worry, Mama got boxes and boxes for tomorrow."

Kit spoke up for the first time since she'd stepped into the room. Out loud, at any rate. "You did great."

Nita was still trying to hid her blush, eyes flashing to the sound of Carmela's laughter, as she stuffed her mouth with chocolate. 


End file.
